In an already incredible week for Indigenous music, Blue King Brown drops Born Free, a strong contender for album of the year. RPM is very excited to bring you an exclusive first listen.
Calling on all nations to 'rize up' and be counted, Blue King Brown's new album Born Free is an uplifting and powerful soundtrack to global struggles for freedom and unity.
Riding the wave of their massive lead singles, "Rize Up" and "All Nations", the anticipation for their new album has been building for almost a year. And by all counts, it's been worth the wait. Born Free is easily BKB's most accomplished album to date.
Production on the new album is handled by Styalz Fuego, Notis, Mista Savona, James ‘Bonzai’ Caruso, and Chris Macro, and was recorded at the legendary Tuff Gong studios in Kingston, Jamaica and studios in Melbourne, Australia. As lead singer Natalie Pa'apa'a (newly dubbed Natalli Rize) says: "After spending most of the year in studio mode and off the road, we are proud to be bringing our new album...to the world, and returning to the stage with the full force live show".
BKB already has a reputation as one of Australia's premiere live acts, and the songs on Born Free demand to be heard on a huge sound system—performed live to a massive mob of freedom fighting warriors.
From chanting down the evils of Babylon on "Rize Up" and "Renegade", to calling for love, unity and change in the deep grooves of "Fyah", "Like A Lion", and "Babylon A Fall", Born Free sounds out hope and possibility at every turn.
Righteous without being preachy, optimistic without being naïve, Blue King Brown's unique mix of urban roots, dancehall, reggae and rock flows effortlessly through an album with no missing pieces and no weak links.
Powered by the clarion call of Natalli Rize's voice, Born Free is a wake up call to sleeping masses lost in a world of manipulation and continuous distraction. Like Rize says, on the album's closing track: "If you have a conscience / you should know just how to use it".
Blue King Brown is leading by example. Born Free is fire.
Stream Blue King Brown's "Born Free"
Check out the video for their latest single "All Nations", filmed in the jungle and streets of Vanuatu and Melbourne, in solidarity and support for the West Papuan struggle for self-determination and freedom.
Download "Born Free" from bluekingbrown.com and follow them on Twitter, Instagram, and SoundCloud.
